BOOK CLUB EVENT: AN EVENING WITH DAVID BADDIEL

We welcome best selling author David Baddiel (My Family) to our September Book Club where he will showcase his latest published works. Our host for the evening, Joe Haddow, will interview him about his writing career and what inspired him to craft his latest work.

There will be an opportunity for an audience Q&A and copies of his latest book will be available to buy and have signed on the night.

Joe Haddow returns as our fantastic Book Club host for the evening. Joe is an author and broadcaster; he runs the Radio 2 Book Club, chairs literary events across the country and is the host of the popular Book Off! Podcast. 

Early arrival is recommended. Pre-drinks and refreshments will be available to purchase on the night from 7pm. No pre-reading is required – just book your ticket and come along.

Ticket price: £15.00 - CLICK HERE

David Baddiel

David Baddiel is an author, comedian, screenwriter and television presenter. He has written four novels and two non-fiction books including the bestselling Jews Don’t Count which was the Sunday Times ‘Politics and Current Affairs Book of the Year’ 2021. David is also the author of ten middle-grade books for children that have sold over 2 million copies.

My Family: The Memoir

A searingly honest, funny and moving family memoir in which David Baddiel exposes his mother’s idiosyncratic sex life and his father’s dementia to the same affectionate scrutiny.

On the surface, David Baddiel’s childhood was fairly standard: that of a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in an ordinary house in Dollis Hill, north-west London. But he came to realise his mother was in fact not ordinary at all. Having escaped extermination by fleeing Nazi Germany as a child, she was desperate to make her life count, which took the form of a passionate, decades-long affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman. David’s detailing of the affair – including a hilarious focus on his mum turning their household over to golf memorabilia, and an eye-popping cache of her erotic writings – leads to the inescapable conclusion that Sarah Baddiel was a cross between Jack Nicklaus and Erica Jong.

Meanwhile, as David investigates his family’s past, his father’s memories are fading; dementia is making his dad moodier and more disinhibited, with an even greater penchant for obscenity. As with his mother’s affair, there is both comedy and poignancy to be found: laughter is a constant presence, capable of transforming the darkest of experiences into something redemptive.

“Profoundly thoughtful” Sunday Times

“Internally funny” Howard Jacobson

“A masterpiece” Sathnam Sanghera

Every ticket counts! At St Helen’s, everything we do is designed to enable pupils to become the best possible version of themselves. The funds raised from this event will support our ambitious Bursary and Scholarship programme; continuing our commitment to widening access to an exceptional education to all prospective pupils, irrespective of financial means or social circumstances.

Books are available for purchase on the night, in association with Chorleywood Bookshop.